


His Sacrifice, Her Happiness, His Sorrow

by sweettears90



Category: Shall We Date?: Love Tangle
Genre: Angst, F/M, Personal Sacrifice, Pining, her happiness means his misery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 04:22:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13628499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweettears90/pseuds/sweettears90
Summary: “Then… why? Why are you giving her up? For me?”“Because I just want to see her be happy. Even if it’s not with me.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just two little snippets into Carter's mind at the end of Oliver's route. The MC's name is Ceinwen.
> 
> I wrote this some time ago, but never got around to putting it up... Whoops.  
> This hasn't been proof-read, so please let me know if you spot any errors so that I can fix them. :)

“Are they mistreating you?”

It was the last thing Oliver had expected Carter Harris to say. But apparently, today was so completely full of surprises for him. Especially in regards to the palace aide. 

“No, but a little fresh air every now and again would be nice,” Oliver said with an absent shrug.

“You do realize that you are a prisoner here, right? We cannot have word getting out that we’re keeping you here.”

“I know, I know,” Oliver said with a dismissive flap of his hand. He offered a faint smile, that was nothing at all like the bright ones he used to give Ceinwen before things went to hell. 

It hurt Carter’s heart to think of her now, with how completely miserable that she’d been ever since the confrontation with Henrik’s uncle. And he had to remind himself that he was doing this for her, so that he could see her smile again. 

Even at the cost of his own happiness. It would be worth it for her smile.

“I’ll get down to business, then,” Carter said with all seriousness. He then laid out a plan for Oliver to follow in order to “escape” custody and “leak” the information about Henrik’s uncle to the press. 

“Why all of this trouble to leak information that you already have?” Oliver said once Carter was finished. “Just do it yourself.” 

“You don’t understand,” Carter said through gritted teeth. “If we leak this information ourself, we will be seen as petty. The information might be valid, but the people won’t accept it anyway. However-”

“If it comes from an outside source, then people would accept it,” Oliver said as he caught on.

“Exactly.”

Oliver considered it for a moment. “What’s it in for me?”

“I can’t exactly make any promises, as I’m here without Prince Henrik’s permission or even knowledge. However, I know that he’d be happy to know that the problem of his uncle was taken care of. Not to mention that Ceinwen has become such a dear friend to him these past few months. He’s upset at how your absence has depressed her, and just wants to see her happy again. If you were to release this information, I’m certain that he would reward you immensely.”

“Ceinwen…” Oliver said with a sad look in his eyes. Then, the look hardened, and he looked up at Carter. “I’ll do it. But only for her. Don’t think that I’m doing you or Henrik any favors.”

“Of course not,” Carter said with a sneer. “This is a case of the two of us needing something from the other. I want you to leak the information to the press. You need to be pardoned for your crimes.”

“Right,” Oliver said slowly. “Hey, wait…”

“Yes?”

“Why are you doing this?”

“I just told you-” Carter started, but Oliver cut him off.

“I don’t mean for the political reasons. I mean about Ceinwen. You’re in love with her, right?”

Carter’s eyes widened. “So she told you, huh?”

“Huh? What? No, not really. I just thought that it was pretty obvious, but I wasn’t sure until just now.”

Carter scowled at Oliver, angry at his own slip up.

“But if I was out of the picture, then you would be able to have her.”

“I think not,” Carter said with an unreadable expression on his face. 

“No, really,” Oliver said with a slight shake of his head. 

“You might be out of the picture, but she’d never be able to move on from you. Not really,” Carter said since it seemed as though the model wasn’t getting it. “In a few months from now, you’d be on the cover of some magazine or something. She’d see you, and all of her feelings for you would simply come back again. Any progress that I’d made with her would be lost because of that. And she might even leave me to go be with you, where ever you might end up after this.”

There was a look of pure anguish in his eyes after saying that. Oliver actually felt sort of sorry for the man. After all, he’d feel the same way if he had to give up being with Ceinwen forever. 

“Then… why? Why are you giving her up? For me?”

“Because I just want to see her be happy. Even if it’s not with me.”

“Yeah, but is that even okay? At the cost of your own happiness?”

Instead of answering, Carter stood. “Do you have any questions about what you’re to do?” And in a lot of ways, his quick dismissal of the subject was answer enough for Oliver. 

It wasn’t okay, it would never be okay. But sacrifices had to be made. And Oliver supposed that he was right: Ceinwen would never be his so long as Oliver was still around. 

And Oliver understood the position that Carter was in. Because he didn’t want to have to give up Ceinwen on top of modeling. 

“No, I know what I have to do.”

Carter started to leave, but turned back to look at Oliver. “Oh, and if you tell anybody, let alone Prince Henrik or Ceinwen about this conversation, you might as well have not acted in the first place.”

“Right.”

Carter left the room and walked to the end of the hall. Once there, he stopped and let out a haggard sigh. Why did it have to be Ceinwen?


	2. Chapter 2

Carter felt nearly sick to his stomach at the sight on the magazine cover. Ceinwen and Oliver. Their foreheads pressed together, seemingly unaware that their photo was being taken.

“Inside their fairytail wedding!” the headline read.

“This could have been you, you know,” a voice said.

Carter looked away from the magazine, and over to King Henrik.

“No, it’s better this way.”

“How long are you going to tell yourself that you don’t love her?”

“Until it’s no longer true.”

Henry looked sadly at his aide.

“I told her that I loved her, you know.”

“What?” Henry asked, a little surprised. “Did you tell her in a round-about way, or something that was open for interpretation?”

“No. I looked her in the eyes and I told her that I loved her.”

Henry just stared at him. “How could anybody resist that?” he finally said, a little taken aback by that. It was more than a little out of character for Carter to act in such a way.

“Because she was already in love with Oliver,” Carter said with a heavy sigh. “And I knew that she was in love with him when I told her. But I felt like if I just let her go to him without saying it, then I’d regret it forever.”

“And now?” Henry prompted him after a beat of silence. Carter just continued to stare at the photo on the cover until Henry pulled it away and hid it behind his back. “And now? Do you feel like you regret it?”

“I regret a lot of things, and I think letting Ceinwen fall in love with Oliver might be the biggest one.”

Henry stared at Carter for a long time, long enough for even the unshakable Carter Harris to start to feel uncomfortable. However, he didn’t say anything, and instead, started to go down a checklist of things to do that day.

“I know you did it,” Henry finally said.

“Did what?”

“I know that you told Oliver to escape the ship, to meet up with Andrea Lee, and leak the information about my uncle to the press. You knew that if he did it, then I would praise him for doing something that I was unable to do. And that it would mean that Oliver and Ceinwen would be together.”

Carter bristled. There was a reason why Henry was the king now, and it wasn’t just his handsome face.

Henry offered his aide a sly smile. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

Carter continued to remain silent. “But why did you do it? You knew that Oliver would only just go back to be with Ceinwen, and that she’d fall into his arms. If you were so in love with her, why did you just give her away like that?”

“Don’t you see?” Carter said. His voice was flat, but the look in his eyes conveyed how angry that he was. “She was never mine. She would never be mine. Maybe he would have gone quiet for a while, and I would have tried to woo her, to court her. However, a guy like Oliver Cowell would never be content to be a normal person; he’s so used to the limelight. He would have popped back up, sooner or later. And any progress that I’d made with Ceinwen would have been lost because of that. She was in love with him— she picked him over me. She would have never picked me.”

Henry lay a gentle hand over Carter’s clenched fist, and he realized that he was trembling. With rage, with sorrow, or with some combination of the two, he wasn’t sure.

He offered Henry an odd look, and Henry just gave him a sympathetic look in return.

“I don’t think that you’ll ever really know now,” Henry finally said.

“If that’s enough of my personal life-” Carter started.

“You should take the day off.”

“What for?”

“Because you’re sad.”

“I’m not going to take the day off because the woman that I love is marrying another man.”

“No, but we all need to grieve sometimes. And that’s okay.”

Carter regarded Henry for a long moment. “I’d like to continue to work in order to keep my mind off from her.”

“Of course,” Henry said with a reluctant sigh. “Oh, but Carter?”

“Sir?”

“How is it that you’re able to carry on? You’re just so depressed and angry. More at yourself than anything. But how can you do it? I wouldn’t be able to.”

Carter looked down at the magazine that Henry had put down on the coffee table. “It’s her happiness that keeps me going. She was so sad when Oliver left following that day with your uncle. And I wanted to see her smile again, to be happy.”

“You’re a really great guy, Carter. Never forget that,” Henry said with a faint smile.

Carter looked back down at the list in his hand, and started to give out orders again.

“Hey, I’m going to find you a girlfriend! Put that down on my to-do list!”

“Sir, no!”

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this, please leave kudos and/or a comment. They always make my day. :)


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